Stephanie McHenry

President, Cleveland Region, ShoreBank

It was a love of community service that brought Stephanie McHenry to ShoreBank, an institution that has garnered a reputation for being an affordable housing lender. So, it’s easy to imagine the heartbreak Ms. McHenry, president of ShoreBank’s Cleveland region, feels over the rash of foreclosures in Northeast Ohio during the past several years.“It’s horrible,” she said. “There’s way too much room in the market for people to come in and do nasty things.”Ms. McHenry said her bank is doing what it can to help alleviate the pressure caused by the foreclosures. First and foremost are maintaining the bank’s underwriting standards. Much of the current trouble came about when other institutions loosened their qualifications for lending, she said.“I think some of it, unfortunately, is unintended consequences of regulation and public pressure to do irrational lending, and this is the fallout,” she said. “The first time there’s a slip, you’re in trouble.”Her bank primarily focuses on the real estate investing market. An example, Ms. McHenry said, would be “a carpenter who buys a double in Glenville, rehabs it and makes it into a housing opportunity or rents it out.”“Our underwriting is as much about what you’re doing with the property,” she said.ShoreBank also is putting more of a focus on lending to those who are rehabbing multifamily buildings.“We’re ramping up our lending in that area,” she said. Given the accelerated pace of foreclosures on single-family homes, Ms. McHenry said, there may be a greater need for multifamily structures.

Developing an office

Ms. McHenry, 44, who lives in Shaker Heights, is no stranger to rehabbing. It was her job, during a period from 1994 to 1998, to develop ShoreBank’s office building at 540 E. 105th St. The building was nearly vacant at first — “there were maybe 10 cars in the parking lot,” Ms. McHenry said — but there are now about 40 businesses in the building.She credited nonprofit groups such as the Glenville Development Corp. with helping to eliminate the vacancies. Still, it was difficult work.“It took five years off my life,” joked Ms. McHenry.

Finding her way

It’s been a long road for Ms. McHenry, who started with ShoreBank in 1986 as an intern. But, she always knew she eventually would find her way to one of the top positions at the bank.“I’ve been consistently rewarded in my career for my hard work, and I have a passion for what I do,” she said. “I don’t take that for granted. Not everyone who works hard gets to live out their dream.”Joe Roman, CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, said Ms. McHenry has been an active member of his group’s board.“She’s always the first to call after the meeting to discuss ideas or to talk about something at the meeting,” he said.And Ms. McHenry has her own ideas on how to solve the foreclosure crisis that is gripping Northeast Ohio and the nation. She said lenders need to work more closely with consumers during the home-buying process.“Some people need to be counseled out of that decision (to buy a home), at least in the near term,” she said.